Until November 26th, this program allows you to order the revolutionary XO laptop, only now being made available, for $399. Not only will you receive the one you ordered, but another child in a developing country will also receive one. Talk about bang for your buck.

Until November 26th, this program allows you to order the revolutionary XO laptop, only now being made available, for $399. Not only will you receive the one you ordered, but another child in a developing country will also receive one. Talk about bang for your buck.

It gets better: $200 of your purchase price is tax deductible for charitable purposes, and US buyers will also receive one year of free T-Mobile hot-spot internet access too!

The XO laptop is a kid-friendly, internet accessible laptop designed to be durable, resistant to less hospitable weather conditions (read: Africa, South America, etc), and operates with the Linux interface (Justin would be pleased)!

This program is only open to residents of US and Canada, and supplies are limited, so order yours before November 26th and know that the present to your child is going beyond our borders.

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One thing I would caution is that people look at the specs before they order; the XO isn't exactly your nromal laptop, so we want to make sure people know what they're getting.

The XO is intended for use in developing countries, and because of that, it is very bare-bones. Those who order them have to understand that they aren't buying a computer that is going to be competitive with a normal system. For kids in the US & Canada (the only places you can get the XO through Give One, Get One), the system will not be able to do most of the things they're used to doing on a computer. Don't expect to be able to play games, watch movies, play music (unless you're using external storage), or any other kind of multimedia activities.

A brief rundown of the specs: a 7.5" screen, a 433mz processor, 256MB RAM, and 1GB of internal flash memory. It doesn't have a hard drive, CD/DVD drives, or floppy drives. It does have some nice things, like built-in speakers and a built-in camera. It does run Linux, so you're going to run into some of the common problems with Linux, like limited support for printers and other devices that use proprietary drivers.

I think Give One, Get One is an excellent program (I've covered it several times on LinuxJournal.com) but buyers really do need to be careful to be aware of what they're getting when they're buying

I think it's also worth noting that for a dollar more ($400), you can simply donate two laptops. You don't get the free hot-spot access, but for those of us who want to donate but don't have any use for one of those laptops for ourselves, the entire amount is tax-deductible.

I have a problem with this. It's good to give "third-world" kids a shot at education, don't get me wrong. But what good is that going to do them if they don't have a shot at life?

Malaria (a disease that is partially preventable and completely treatable) along with AIDS and TB kills ten thousand Africans every day. What good is a laptop going to do a dead child? A two-dollar mosquito net could save a life.

Worse still, even if the laptop gets the children through primary school, many children in the global South are unable to attend secondary school because of school fees and uniform costs.

That said, if you're going to buy a laptop of this sort anyway I don't see any harm in someone else benefiting from it. I just wouldn't do the "donate two" thing.

Also, if you're looking for a *really* barebones type laptop for use in extreme environments, several companies sell models that are essentially electronic, non-printing typewriters that can sync with a computer or printer via USB or infrared. I found one of these invaluable while living in India. Great battery life too--700 (yes, seven hundred) hours on three AAs.

I read about this a few weeks ago and think it is a great idea. The 'free' laptop is a perfect gift for a little kid. I think the specs are more than sufficient for their use, and it comes with a lesson about giving and helping other too :)